Does your organization have an OpenStack environment?  Are you trying to figure out how to monetize it?  You might want to check out a company called, Talligent.  They just recently announced a free trial of OpenBook, a turnkey metering and billing solution designed for the OpenStack cloud platform.  

OpenStack is a powerful and low cost cloud alternative to proprietary solutions, making it an attractive solution for service providers.  According to a recent 451 Research report, service providers will account for $486 million of total OpenStack market revenue in 2013 (See more at: http://www.eweek.com/cloud/openstack-cloud-business-tops-600m-in-2013-over-1b-by-2015.html).  Service providers are quick to create various *aaS type solutions for their customers and reseller partners, but managing the customer lifecycle in an OpenStack cloud is tricky.  OpenStack doesn't come with business functionality... and navigating the various APIs (such as nova, cinder, and ceilometer) is, well, complicated!

Planning the financial experience, from on-boarding to self-service to paying the bill, generally comes after the decision to deploy on OpenStack.  Hardware and infrastructure costs add up quickly, so there is a strong incentive to start billing and recouping that cost.

Enter OpenBook - Business Manager for OpenStack Clouds

That's where Talligent comes into play.  It's turn-key metering and billing solution was designed for OpenStack clouds.  It gives service providers the business process infrastructure needed to monetize the cloud, but it also covers the complete customer lifecycle, from on-boarding and self-service, to metering, invoicing and payments.

OpenBook integrates with the Grizzly and Havana releases, and Talligent said it will support Icehouse within 30 days of its release. 

Ready to try it?  Talligent has a trial version of the OpenBook solution available now, and you can get a 30 day trial by contacting the company, here:  http://talligent.com/contact/